This summer, Jack went to summer sleep away camp for the first time. While he spent his days being challenged, enriched, and rewarded with new skills and new friends, Rigby, David, and I were able to steal away several days near his camp in the mountains and charming towns of Western North Carolina (WNC). WNC is a place that gained importance to David and I during our years at Davidson and we are thrilled for the opportunity to include this special part of the country in our yearly summer adventures as we travel westward for camp pickups and drop-offs for the next many years.

We arrived with a short list of places to explore and restaurants to pop into, and left with so many more ideas for our next visit. We concentrated our time during the first set of days on the town of Highlands, just an hour northwest of Brevard where Jack's Summer Boys Camp, Camp High Rocks, is located.

We rented a home via AirBnB for our stay and it could not have been more charming! The home is located about 1 mile from the town center oh Highlands, across the street from Mirror Lake. We appreciated all of the fun details and folk art in the house and the boys loved the candy cabinet and snack basket that the owners so graciously left for us. The biggest highlight was the canoe that was included with the home rental. Despite the copious amounts of rain during our four day stay, we loved paddling around the lake and exploring all of the beautiful homes and gardens.

It was with such pleasure that we were able to coordinate a visit with dear friends on our first night in Highlands. We met at Bistro on Main for cocktails in the late afternoon and then walked down Main Street to Cyprus for dinner on their upper patio. Truth be told, do not come to WNC for the food...it's alright, but doesn't come close to matching the beauty and splendor of its surroundings. So, dinner was more about friendship and connection rather than flavors and pairings.

Jack only stayed with us for one night in Highlands before we dropped him off at Camp! He was eager to get started on his adventures and new friendships, so after a quick goodbye, we drove away from Camp High Rocks with hopeful hearts for our big boy! Before departing Brevard, we made a stop at OP Taylors toy store. This has become one of our favorite places to spend an hour playing with the fun remote control cars and exploring all of the new toys. It has multiple rooms and two stories and is such a treasure to visit! We stopped in Cashiers for lunch on our drive back to Highlands hoping to eat at Cornucopia but the wait was very long and we weren't feeling up for a long delay. Instead, we went to the Cashiers Farmers Market where they serve BBQ out of a small trailer on the side. The grounds are dotted with wooden picnic tables, making it a lovely place to eat.

Many of our afternoons were spent cozy in the house napping, reading, looking for bears in the lake, or watching a movie. It was such a treasure to have unstructured down time. On our first night without Jack (second night in Highlands), we took a very short hike to Sunset Rock after dinner where we were rewarded with a sunset, albeit hazy. Rigby enjoyed playing on the rocks and we loved watching the daylight fade over the town.

We cooked many meals at home (as I mentioned earlier, the food is quite average, for the most part), but we did enjoy going to Mountain Fresh Grocery multiple times. Their breakfast is quite tasty, but be aware most people feel the same way and it can get busy, and their chocolate chip cookies are large and amazingly delicious! They also have a nice selection of beers on tap and it's a pretty tasty spot to grab a pizza.

We enjoyed our time exploring the Highlands Nature Center. Although small, it has some neat interactives for children, some cool animals, and beautiful gardens. Another hit in town was SweeTreats for ice cream and The Toy Store.

Perhaps my most favorite day in Highlands was spent at the gorgeous Bascom: Center for the Visual Arts and then taking another short but very rewarding hike to Dry Falls. Because of all the rain Highlands got during our stay, Dry Falls was roaring with water making it quite a spectacle to walk behind. It was hard not to get wet from all the mist. We had an early dinner at Ugly Dog Pub before we turned in for our last night.

After going to a Family Reunion and then coming back home in Chattanooga for a few days, we returned to WNC to pick up our big Camper! This time, we stayed in Brevard at the quirky Sunset Motel which was perfect for our short weekend visit.

The most exciting part of this group of days, was picking up Jack from High Rocks! We enjoyed our morning at Camp learning about all of his activities and seeing the areas of camp that he grew to love during his time there. We were also able to visit a bit longer with his counselor who seemed like Jack's kindred spirit.

Again, we were rewarded with a visit with friends...this time, a surprise visit with a dear high school friend who happened to be visiting from Tokyo and staying in the area with his family! We had lunch at Dahlia's on the Davidson River, then went to Dolly's Dairy Bar for ice cream. We ended our visit with a stop at Highlands Books. It was a great afternoon spent reconnecting and watching our children interact across different languages. That evening, we went to Oskar Blues Brewery and played corn hole, listened to live music, ate pizza, and sampled yummy beers.

Before heading back home, we spent the morning at Looking Glass Falls and the Pigsah Ranger Station. The boys were brave enough to get into the water, but I am so fearful of cold water, that I opted to stay on the rocks and take pictures. After some outdoor exploring, we had lunch from the Blue Smoke food truck and grabbed a beer at the Hub and Pigsah Tavern. We did a little shopping in the Hub for frisbee golf discs before making our way back to Chattanooga.

Other ideas for next time:

In Highlands-

Secret Falls Hike

El Manzinillo for margaritas and Mexican food

A show at the Highlands Playhouse

A splurge stay at Old Edwards Inn and dining at Madison's and The Wine Garden (which I am certain would not disappoint)

We are moving this summer (once again. gulp.). David finishes his fellowship at the end of June and we are off to our next adventure in Chattanooga! We have known nearly this whole year that this was our next step yet now that it is right around the corner, it seems surreal.

Our decision to settle down in Chattanooga was intentional. Chattanooga is a moderate-sized city with an abundance of outdoor activities, a thriving and growing food and farmer's market scene, excellent schools, a cool art vibe, a plethora of festivals, water and mountains nearly out your backdoor, an easy drive to the homes of all of our family, and an amazing job opportunity for David.

We hope that Chattanooga becomes one of the most special places in our lives- the place we raise Jack and Rigby, the place where we grow old together.

David and I have moved around a lot in the past 20 years weaving our way up and down the east coast and then across the country. Our first move, when we were just 18 years old, was from our hometown of Pensacola to our sweet college town of Davidson. During our college years, we lived collectively in 6 dorm rooms, 3 apartments, 1 hotel room, and 2 houses (some of these shelters were in France and Italy during our study abroad semesters). After graduating from Davidson, we moved to Boston where we lived for 2 years in 3 different apartments. Atlanta was our next stop where we stayed for 8 years in 3 different apartments/duplexes before making our biggest move yet across the country. We lived in Seattle for 5 years in 2 different houses before moving back to the Atlanta area last summer and finding our sweet home in Decatur for this past year. The moves have been exciting, adventure-filled, and necessary, yet also exhausting both emotionally and physically.

After living in one home in one city for the first 18 years of my life, all of the changes were definitely something new. Despite the exhaustion of moving and the crazed feeling I battle with most days, particularly over the past few years, I look at all that David and I have accomplished and feel proud. Our relationship with each other, our boys, the relationships we have grown with so many wonderful friends, all of the places we have been able to visit, our undergraduate and graduate degrees, our careers. All of these are reason to celebrate. And, this move, as so many before it, will be the beginning of a new adventure, a new season, a new cause for celebration.

While our other moves were relatively brief, more indicative of chapters in our lives, I sense that Chattanooga will be the start of a long, multi-chaptered story. And, perhaps, it will be less about adventure and accomplishments and more about living. I want this new story, our new home, to reflect a life dedicated to acquiring less and doing more. Of seeing places we want to see and doing things we want to do. Learning new hobbies, growing a garden, buying our first home, watching our boys find activities and interests that make them grow and thrive and friends that make them happy, and building a life-long community in a city that ignites our passions. I want to slow it all down and start really living, not just looking forward to the next step, but knowing that this is the place where we are supposed to be. Surrounded by each other in perhaps the first, and last, place that feels truly like home.

We are so excited about this next step! So, when Jennifer from Modern Map Art reached out to me several months back and offered to send me a print, of all the places that we've lived, I knew Chattanooga was the map that I wanted for the walls of our new home. Modern Map Art designs and prints map art of cities, countries, and even ski destinations paying particular attention to the details that make each place unique. I just love the fact that our new home has a beautiful river flowing right through its center and this is showcased so clearly on the map. We can hardly wait to frame it and give it a home on our new walls. I am tempted to add the maps of all of the other cities where we have lived and to create a large map gallery on the walls of our guest cottage...

Jack's Spring Break begins tomorrow and David is OFF for the whole week! This break comes at a much needed time, as we are all starting to unravel a bit and I'm feeling a strong need to hit the pause and then reset buttons.

We are spending the first weekend with some friends at the lake and then headed down to Orlando for, most importantly, time with other dear friends and, secondly, to dip our toes into the land of Florida Theme Parks with a trip to Universal Studios!

In addition to drinking smoothies for breakfast, I've been juicing more lately and have loved reaching for a fresh green juice in the afternoons instead of a coffee- I feel more invigorated over the long haul rather than an energy spike followed by the inevitable slump.

Speaking of books, I might try my hand at an audiobook during our road trip next week. I am not anti-book listening, I just haven't found time to carve out for this in my day of virtually no car travel. Yet, I hear RAVE reviews for the audio version, in particular, of George Saunders' debut novel.

After many years of having it on our bucket list, we finally secured a reservation on Cumberland Island and met some of our dear friends for a fun weekend of camping over President's Day weekend. The beauty of the island is stunningly unique as the white sanded beach and beautiful blue ocean is juxtaposed against the old knotted oak trees dripping with Spanish moss and adorned at their base with saw palmettos over 7 feet high. To add to the majestic wonder of this special place, we witnessed the wild horses roaming among the ruins of the Carnegie family mansion.

The moments we spent on the beach were so peaceful and gorgeous, but the highlight of the weekend for the children was the exceptional climbing tree (and being able to visit it without adults a few times) and the highlight for me was hanging out at our campsite- just being able to talk, have a few drinks, watching our children play and read together, and enjoying the music from our neighbor campers. Despite the amount of work that is involved in camping, particularly with a toddler, I never regret the moments we spend in nature and the experience it provides for us all. This particular trip was even more relaxing in some ways since there was no cellular service on the island- a weekend without a phone was a nice treat!

We are excited to start exploring the camping areas near Chattanooga and to make a trip to camp in Asheville soon. Where are some of your favorite camping spots?

I am sending my support and love to all of the brave people who are marching this weekend. I planned to attend the Atlanta March but have since changed my plans after Jack told me that he was scared for me to go since "you might be arrested". Therefore, I will be hugging my family tighter tomorrow and hoping all is peaceful, yet powerful.

May we stand united in love and peace.

PS A huge thank you to Cup of Jo and Samantha Hahn for sharing and creating these stirring and beautiful poster images.

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